The three finally reach the western junction of three canyons.  This is the dangerous part of the mission.  Each man has to work down a canyon far enough to attract the Priests who will be out on patrol, because they will have noticed the landing.  The Priests are masters of combat and, once each man has attracted the attention of a Priest, or reached the mouth of his canyon unopposed, he will then need to retrace his steps and again climb to the top of the West side ridge.  Once he's back at the top of the ridge, he'll run North until he's well past the Temple and then he has to figure a way to cross the river to get to the pickup point.  Simple enough, unless the Priests catch a man.  If the Priests catch a man, the man is dead.

As he starts down the steep western end of his assigned canyon, Dommy once again has cause to regret his lack of useful education and training.  He makes good money as a member of the artifact landing teams.  However, he risks his life at each landing.  However, it's risk his life for good money or spend his life as a low-paid, no-hope laborer.

Dommy's trip down the western end of the canyon is terrifying.  It's a steep slope, but Dommy knew that.  The problem is that the western end of at least his canyon is rotted, unstable rock.  Dommy has no choice but to slide down the steep slope to the bottom.  That's not the problem.  The problem is that there's no way that Dommy is going to get back up the slope again.  He'll have to exit the eastern end of the canyon and try to work North along the river valley.  It's almost certain death at the hands of the Priests, but there's only the one chance for Dommy.

Dommy steels himself and works his way East along the twisting, turning bottom of the canyon.  If he can avoid meeting a Priest, he has at least a chance.

Dommy works cautiously over a rise in the bottom of the canyon and finds himself staring at a Priest.  Dommy is dead!

Dommy has position at the top of a slope and, with escape cut off at the western end of the canyon, the top of the slope seems as good a place as any for Dommy to die.

Dommy aims his crossbow at the Priest to at least make a fight of it.  However, the Priests wear armor good enough to stop a crossbow quarrel and they're masters at the art of combat, including moving cleverly enough to avoid taking a crossbow quarrel in an unprotected spot.

The Priest moves rapidly up the slope and Dommy fires the first of the two quarrels he might get off before the Priest is upon him.  The Priest sees Dommy fire and he would have avoided the quarrel except that the same treacherous footing that makes it impossible for Dommy to retreat to the western slope of the canyon causes the Priest to lose his balance.  Unbalanced, the Priest can't avoid the quarrel.  The Priest dies and Dommy might yet live!

Dommy walks cautiously down the slope to the Priest.  He verifies that the Priest is indeed dead.  Dommy catches the glimpse of a shiny sigil of some sort worn by the Priest.  The sigil might be silver and Dommy removes it from the dead priest and slips the chain holding the sigil over his own neck.

Dommy then moves further East down to the mouth of the canyon.  The canyon has wound its way further North than Dommy expected.  Dommy glances back and sees two Priests coming out of the mouths of the two canyons further South.  The sight means that the Priests have found Morg and Jer and the Priests aren't in pursuit.  Thus, Morg and Jer are dead!  Dommy is the only survivor on this side of the river.

Dommy’s only hope is to run North.  Dommy runs, using the mile eating stride that his six foot one inch body can generate.  The Priests are fierce warriors, but they're short in stature and Dommy’s survival chances are with his longer legs.

Dommy runs for a while until he spots a Priest in the flat plain to his North.  Dommy’s only chance for escape leads across a river bridge that undoubtedly leads to the Temple and probably more Priests.

With sinking spirits, Dommy runs across the bridge and along a path through woods too dense to offer any real chance of passage.  The path finally opens to a small clearing in which the Temple stands.

In front of the Temple, are the bodies of Byng, Vyn and a Priest.  All three are dead and the artifact for which so many have died is on the ground near Byng’s outstretched, dead hand.

Dommy scoops up the artifact.  The artifact resembles a sort of bracelet and Dommy slips it on his wrist, without thinking.  He can carry the artifact that way and keep running.  His only hope is to outrun the remaining Priests and reach the pickup point.

Dommy runs along a path that seems to lead North until he sees a Priest.  With no real option, Dommy turns and darts down a southward leading path.

Dommy hears horns that must be the remaining Priests signaling.  His only hope is to keep running and try to out leg the Priests.

Dommy’s run lasts the rest of the day, until nightfall.  It should have been a nightmare of exhaustion and pain.  Surprisingly, Dommy has never felt so strong.  His stride is relaxed and propels him at speed along winding trail after winding trail with minimal effort.

For some reason, Dommy automatically avoids certain trails.  Somehow he seems to know that he'll encounter a Priest down that trail.  The reason behind Dommy’s new found running skill and Priest detection has to be either the sigil or the artifact or maybe both.

It takes Dommy five days of running and hiding before his new senses tell him that he has outrun the Priests.  Dommy has been able to find edible plants and even take a few small animals with his crossbow.  He's still alive, but now what?

The pickup time has passed and the second pickup time has also passed.  The ship won't remain past the second pickup time. It'll have been assumed that the landing team has died at the hands of the Priests.  There will almost certainly be another attempt made to retrieve an important artifact.  However, the next attempt might be years in the future and Dommy can't remain near the Temple where the Priests will find him, sooner or later.

There's an emergency beacon to the South.  If Dommy can somehow reach the emergency beacon and trigger it, a ship will eventually pick him up.  It's a slim chance, but his only chance to survive.

As Dommy works his way South, the river valley turns West and the river runs into the sea.  The beacon is still much further South.

Dommy starts South down the beach.

The next few weeks are very difficult for Dommy.  He can take an occasional fish in the shallow bays off the ocean with just his crossbow.  The process of correcting for the distortion of his view by the water is just another benefit of his new senses.  However, he loses too many of his limited supply of quarrels with that sort of fishing.

Inland, the wooded areas of the river valley have turned into semi-desert trending to desert.  The landscape is mostly barren with only brush, cactus type plants and the occasional stream meandering down from the mountains far to the East.  A man could not have survived in the barren terrain.  However, Dommy not only survives, he adapts.

There's some food in the area.  The artifact, as Dommy finally determines, can tell him what is edible and what's not.  Since Dommy’s supply of crossbow quarrels won't last forever, the artifact teaches Dommy how to make throwing sticks and snares.

The artifact also enables Dommy to find the emergency beacon, high on a ridge above the desert.  Dommy reaches the base of the emergency beacon and keys in his emergency rescue request, but there's no immediate answer.  Dommy will have to check the beacon regularly, if he's to have any chance of rescue.

Dommy could have lived well in the wooded areas to the North, but there are the Priests there.  Dommy could have lived well in the mountains to the East.  However, he has to check the beacon too frequently to allow him that escape.

Dommy’s wait for a rescue ship takes some five years.  During the five years, Dommy learns a great deal.